"Earliest Effective Filing Date" (Optional Field) - The earliest effective filing date is when your patent application claims priority to a U.S. non-provisional application. If your patent claims priority from another U.S. non-provisional patent application, then the earliest possible filing date will be shown on the first page of your patent called "Related U.S. Application Data". If your patent claims priority from more than one U.S. patent application, you should utilize the earliest filing date of the prior applications. If your patent does not claim priority from a prior patent application, do not enter anything into this field. Examples of Earliest Effective Filing Dates include situations where you have a "continuation", "divisional" or a "continuation-in-part" patent application. Examples of when there are no Earliest Effective Filing Date include where a claim of priority is from a foreign application or a U.S. provisional application (i.e. do not enter any data into this field). See example below.

"Application Filing Date" (Mandatory Field) - This is the actual filing date of the patent with the U.S. Patent Office. This date will be shown on the first page of your patent called "Filed:" followed by the Application Filing Date. See example below.

"Issue Date" (Mandatory Field) - This is the date the patent was actually granted by the U.S. Patent Office. This date is in the upper-right hand portion of the first page of the patent called "Date of Patent:" followed by the Issue Date. See example below.